What Will Bunch Said

Author Will Bunch absolutely understands the GOP War On The Other that I keep talking about.

America, we are in for the bumpy political ride of a lifetime. It will take enormous courage for defenders of two centuries of religious freedom and tolerance toward both religious and economic refugees to stand firm in the face of the kind of raw public anger and emotion that have caused backbone-impaired politicians like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid or supposed progressive stalwart Howard Dean to wither in mere days. Our determined minority may be barely clinging to our cherished traditions -- as best expressed by President George Washington in 1790 when he wrote "the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens" -- in the face of this onslaught for the next few years.

Let's face it: This country has long had its Know-Nothings and its Birchers and its McCarthyites, but it never had gizmos like Fox News or Sarah Palin's Twitter feed to fuel toxic ideas so far so fast. It's time we admit these seemingly disconnected battles over "anchor babies, mosques, and a black man in the Oval Office are all part of the same war against "the Other," and that we are in the fight of a lifetime.  

Absolutely read the whole article.

We are indeed in the fight of a lifetime.  The goal here isn't to get rid of Obama or to spread fear about Muslims or to scapegoat Latinos or bash on gays.  Those are methods, not goals.

The goal of the modern Republican party is to roll back 80 years of classic liberalism.  It is nothing short of the repeal of the New Deal and everything that came after it, from Brown vs Board of Education to Roe vs Wade to the Civil Rights Act to Title IX to everything Obama signed into law.  Roll back Social Security, Medicare, welfare, social services, education...roll back the government itself and leave everything to the free market and the Divine Right of Wealth:

If you're wealthy, you've earned it, you deserve it, and you're a good person.  If you're not, it's because you're lazy.  Work harder, pray harder, and shut the hell up.

We face a wealth imbalance in this country that exceeds the height of the Gilded Age, and it's still not enough for our corporate masters.  Nothing short of the end of the federal government will satisfy them, and hundreds of millions of serfs who exist only to drain wealth from must be sacrificed for more.

That's where we're heading.  Bunch gets this, thank God.